Stanley Cup Playoffs: Red Wings Penalty Kill Leads Game 2 Victory
The Detroit Red Wings picked up two first period goals en route to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators to even up their first round playoff series at a game apiece.
The Red Wings penalty kill has found a way to stymie the top-ranked power play of the Predators throughout the first two games of the series. Which is seemingly very helpful, considering Detroit can’t seem to stay out of the box. After forcing the Preds to go zero-for-six on the power play last night, the Red Wings’ penalty killers again held serve. Detroit killed off all six penalties tonight, including 30 seconds of a 5-on-3 situation.
Todd Bertuzzi set the tone for Detroit tonight when he dropped the gloves against Preds’ defenseman Shea Weber early in the first period. Bertuzzi, perhaps the only “grinder” on the Detroit roster, wasn’t going to put up with Weber attacking his teammate at the end of game 1.
The key to this series so far has been to get less shots on goal than your opponent. Nashville won game one despite being outshot 37-26. Not to be outdone, Detroit went ahead and won game two while being outshot 26-17. Efficiency may be the name of the game in the playoffs, but you’d still like to see more than 17 shots on the road.
Jimmy Howard was awesome again between the pipes for Detroit, stopping 24 of the 26 shots, with a little help from the post. The game winner for Detroit came in a rather unconventional way. Brad Stuart drove the puck into the corner and simply threw one in front of the net that bounced off Johan Franzen‘s unsuspecting calf and into the back of the net. The Red Wings sat on the subsequent 3-1 lead, and with a little luck, hung on to tie the series.
This series will resume at the Joe on Sunday afternoon.
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